Ciara Grant grateful for second chapter in her Irish story

It's over ten years since Ciara Grant made her Republic of Ireland senior debut against the USA in Portland.

She was a talented 19-year-old then, "just going with the flow", as she puts it. America eased to a 5-0 victory, with Alex Morgan scoring a hat-trick.

They will be expected to triumph again when they face the Irish in a friendly in Austin this Saturday night [live on RTÉ2 from 7pm], but Ireland will surely provide a sterner test for the world number one-ranked side this time around.

Meanwhile Grant is savouring a second coming. She fell out of the game around 2016 as she focused on her medical studies. But the lure of competitive football ultimately proved too strong.

"The feedback I've gotten from coaches both here and in my club is that I am going up and up, and that's just full-time football."

"When I graduated I had to do my internship, that was full-time work in the hospital," said the Donegal woman, now 29.

"I think I pushed myself to my limit in college trying to balance it all and then when I knew I was going to be starting full-time work I was like, 'I just can't…' I’m the kind of person who likes to give my all to everything.

"At that stage it was just going to be too much. But honestly, getting back in working with the FAI at an underage level as the cover team doctor, it sparked a huge interest in myself. In 2019 Trevor Scanlon, one of my old Donegal centre of excellence coaches, I met him in Donegal, we were watching a Donegal game.

"He was like, 'what age are you now?’ I said, I’m 27’. He said ‘most footballers don’t peak till they’re 29 so get back at it’. It was little things like that that sparked a little interest.

"I joined Sion Swifts in the Northern Irish League very much with the idea of, ‘let’s just